13 January 2006

Foreign Military Bases

It is worthwhile to pause occassionally and see the big picture of the U.S. military. American military bases abroad are part of that big picture. There are fewer than one might expect. What follows is a breakdown of Americans based abroad as of March 31, 2005, listing all countries with 100 or more active duty service members from a single service (Guam and Puerto Rico, which are U.S. territories, and the U.S. states of Alaska and Hawaii are also listed as if each were a separate country, but are not included in the percentage serving abroad):

The percentage of troops stationed abroad in each service is a crude, but relevant measure of the strain that each of the four services is currently facing. The Army is currently under an immense strain compared to the other services.

Large swaths of the world have very few U.S. troops. In all of Sub-Saharan Africa, there are only 461 active duty military personnel, of whom 369 are Marines, most of whom likely serve as embassy guards. Aside from Guantanamo, which is U.S. controlled territory, there are only 1,124 U.S. troops outside of the United States in the Western Hemisphere, of whom 155 are in Canada and 458 of which are in Honduras. There are just 126 U.S. troops in the former Soviet Union. In East Asia and the Pacific, there are just 1,193 who are not in Japan, South Korea or afloat.

Current plans call for reducing the foreign presence of U.S. troops even more, as bases in Germany and South Korea are reduced in size.